Arts Commission Regular Meeting

The Arts Commission, the first one of the year. I assume roll call first liaison Bridget.

Everyone is here.

Bravo. What a commission. Let's thank our lucky country I am going to ask for approval of agendas really

only one discussion item here. I move that we accept it.

All in favor? Aye. Is that good enough, Bridgette?

That is good enough for me.

Nice all right uh for our discussion item tonight which is very exciting. We

actually have two.

Have two what?

Discussion items.

Two.

One is... Oh yes

Pam is doing hers great beautiful um any public comments that we need to or

No, no hands are raised right now.

Okay and so I'm going to turn this over to Commissioner Steiner to talk about the Bureau of Jury. Give us a little history too if you don't mind.

Thank you. So as you see from the administrative report We have received an application for a mural from the Pixies General Store and Forage Ojai. Under the mural ordinance, we then create a jury. So there are seven members that compose the mural jury, comprise the mural jury. These are the owner or representative of the owner, a member of the Arts Commission, a member of the Planning Commission or the Historic Preservation Commission, two arts professionals, an artist and a community member.

And so Smitty and I have consulted on this, and bring before you the seven proposed members that we would like your vote on. Those are for the Arts Commission, Smitty, Planning or historic preservation, you could do either or. If the location of the building is within an historic district it must be the Historic Preservation Commission. Bridget and I looked into this question, and the location is not within a historic district nor is it a structure of historic significance. And so we need not use Historic Preservation. Instead we went with the Planning Commission, and we asked Jonathan Chesley who's a planning commissioner and is an architect if he would serve. He said yes.

The owner of course, or the owners representative would be the third member. Two arts professionals one is Barbara Hirsch a former Arts Commissioner as you know and also she has for years been active in health care and the arts And the other arts professional is me. The artist is Linda Taylor, who is the president of OSA. She is a printmaker, a painter and also a muralist. And the community member who has agreed is Michael Graves, the owner of Summer Camp which itself was the subject of a successful mural jury and he is also a business owner So again, recap. Smitty on behalf of the Arts Commission, Jonathan Chesley on behalf of planning, the owner or the owners representatives, Barbara Hirsch and me as the arts professionals, Linda Taylor as the artist and Michael Graves as the community member.

So I would like to move that we accept this Panel, and I would like to further move because these are all busy people and seven is in fact a large number that we authorize Smitty to make substitutions in the event of an unavoidable absence. And that is my motion.

Second? Who won? David seconded there too. Let's have some discussion Christine could I ask you to talk a little bit about location for the benefit of everyone? Everyone listening and also Something else that I forgot but

I'll give a bit of information about the location and also About the mural ordinance itself so the location is It says 110 East Matillaha, but I thought it was on I thought it was on Signal. I

think the wall is on the Matillaha side,

and the business side is Signal. This is the corner of

Signal

and Matillaha.

And the exterior wall on the northwest part of the

corner

facing south is an outside wall.

As you will see from the application that's included. The mural ordinance which was passed shortly before I joined this Commission and I think before you were on it also Smitty or maybe you were just on it But so it predates all of us or most of us. It provides certain criteria for evaluating whether a mural can be placed for reasons of professionalism aesthetics and etc, and And the criteria is outlined in the ordinance. We have had successful Juries in the past so as I mentioned summer camp has a mural that was subject to the mural ordinance process that went quite smoothly El Roblar submitted a request for its mural in its lobby. That meeting went quite smoothly it It did not go forward based on procedural matters that related to criteria under the ordinance, but The jury meeting itself was quite successful.

And then the first of these was for Ojai Automotive, the garage on Ojai Avenue.

The doors of the garage went through this process?

Yeah. So we have the application. We have the jury and I'm pleased to answer any questions that anyone has.

I see that the artist is from San Diego. Do we have any restrictions in terms of using local artists or?

No, the ordinance does not require that we use local artists. So for example, if Jeff Koons came to us, I think we would not say sorry you live in New York

Can you, Christine can you speak to one that this is an ad hoc committee and secondly well once you do that first. That this is not a permanent

commission? So we in fact looked at that issue some time ago. We looked at whether we should impanel set jury for say a year or for X number of applications, or whether we should handle it ad hoc as each application comes up. The mural ordinance is silent on the question and we made the determination that it makes more sense to Create one, to create a panel as each application comes up. And realistically that makes sense because in fact we haven't had very many of these. There aren't that many locations you know walls that are actually appropriate for a mural in any event and so making the determination that it be handled by the each seems to be the right answer

Mm-hmm. And can you speak a little to the the process? What would they come with the jury will do when they meet or where they go and is it? We're trying to be

the ordinance spells it out There are two preliminary questions under the ordinance The first is whether It's So the weather the work itself will be visible for No, no. I'm sorry. That's a different criteria. I was thinking the public

more like this actually that we do this and visit one meeting or

oh III expect that it will be at one one meeting and We will elect a chair. We will review the criteria, which the jurors will have in advance. We will make a determination of whether the mural as proposed satisfies the criteria or whether there should be certain changes that are requested and then we'll go from there In each of the three prior instances, we held the jury on the premises or near the premises. And we'd like to try to do that again this time. So we'll work with Bridgette to have a certain setup both for IT and also chairs and so on, tables, tables for the jurors' chairs if there's any audience and an IT setup.

I guess it's a public meeting, at least that's what we've done in the past. Yes,

it is a public meeting, yeah.

Now the art itself is... We're used to CAPA and maybe our Public Art. This is going to be owned and maintained by the owner of the building? Is that correct? I want to distinguish this from Public

Art. This is different from the CAPA scenario, and it's different from Public Art, you make a good point. This is a private commission On private property, the purview is very limited. It is only to that identified in the statute. We don't delve deeply into questions that are beyond those of the mural ordinance because it's not a Public peace. It's a private piece and therefore our if you would call it sort of zoning authority It is akin to zoning its relatively limited in these private contexts

but I guess it's in view of the public and so there's a sort of a government interest

in

and maintenance is spelled out in the

We'll have to look at maintenance in the ordinance. I assume then that question would go to building and planning.

I see there's an owner of the building, and then a renter who is the owner of the business which is not atypical.

We'd have to make those preliminary determinations because that is one question. Does the owner approve of what the lessee wishes to do on the building?

Well, thank you for answering my questions. Anybody else want to have anything to ask about into the individuals or the process?

I'm just curious if any of these individuals were on the previous jury.

Barbara

was not but Michael Graves was. I

think it's great

to have repeats

So, I like when we encourage people from the community to participate in

That is the proposal Sweet

All right

Yes,

all right any and there's no public comments or anything on this particular item I'm not trying to draw this out. I'm just trying to it's just interesting. I Know hands

are

raised. I like being quickly responsive to the community when they to show how the council and Commission can You

make a good point there and that's the reason I would like the second part of the motion to be that you can submit an alternate juror in the event of unavoidable absence because we want to jump right into this.

Sure, that's appropriate or fits the category correct? Correct All right I'm gonna call for a vote Yes, just till it goes on a little light areas.

Will the committee have any responsibility or oversight of the sort of the continued condition of the mural as it's in the public view? It's degradation if it's tagged or something happens to it.

I think that's addressed in the ordinance and we would go through that with the owner yeah Well, again that's the question. Right right and if and when the leasehold ends what does that mean for the owner? And there are provisions for subsequent murals but the applicant would have to come back again for yet another approval cycle

All right, I'm gonna call for a

vote.

Could

you read to us the motion? Yeah, the motion is to accept the panel and I can read back the panel if you'd like

But you would include it in the motion. Oh, I mean in that yeah Okay,

I'll read them for now if you want. It's myself Jonathan Chesley from the Planning Commission the owner Whitney Hartman or

representative

Representative of the of the business or building Barbara Hirsch from the community or artist Linda Taylor So nice old Commission members and Michael Graves the Previous mural community member

Accept the panel and authorize Chair West to submit an alternative juror. In the

event of an unavoidable absence of one or more of the selected jurors,

I need to get me a thing. I could type on writing is no longer the thing. Okay, are you ready for a vote? Chair

West? Aye now for that and my doctor says can I do it? Aye. I vote aye. Yes

Motion passes

I tried to sway you to make an

eye.

We're not gonna be senators or whatever. Okay, thank you. I think probably reports from commissioners next but let me

check.

Oh sorry yes I'm going to let Commissioner Grau tell us some exciting news.

So on January 28, between 3 and 4.30 at the Ojai Valley Museum, the Arts Commission is featuring a enrichment seminar that will be presented by Colleen O'Mara. She's the partner in Hype Communication Los Angeles. And her theme is invoking the year of the horse, crafting an action-packed integrated approach to branding and marketing. And she is an expert, and I'm really looking forward to this seminar. It's good for anybody.

It really doesn't even matter what field you're in but hopefully all the people in the arts—and it could be dance, music, visual arts—this is a subject that will be acceptable for everybody.

Beautiful and so it's free?

And it's free.

Provided by the City of Ojai Arts Commission. What's

the report say we're voting

on?

I think it's just an announcement.

Are you going to vote on the March one as well?

Yes, I have another one in March.

Yeah this is a receive and

file. So in March Cassandra Jones is gonna be speaking her subject has not been finalized yet for title but she's I believe March 21st let me just

Oh, I remember. Now we have a standard stipend for the speaker so we don't have to do that every time. But

don't we have to vote?

Cassandra's on March 25th. Don't we have to vote on

authorizing

Pam for the stipend?

Why not? Well, I don't know about that.

I thought we

already

voted for

that.

Yeah, you guys voted on the amount already

okay.

Can you remind us what the amount is? Do

you want to make the motion

or do you want me to

try Let's do it anyways just to be safe I move that we approve the our education departments Upcoming Education seminars a seminar or seminars. Let's hear about let's hear about let's hear about February 1st.

Yes No, January is no Mara and Cassandra Jones is in March right?

Let's hear about Cassandras

Okay

Okay, so I'll make a motion that we approve our agreed upon stipend for For Colleen O'Mara and for Cassandra Jones for the next two education seminars

Yeah

Motion passes. Can I put together

an invoice now for the January 28th? Yes, and if you can please get the w-9s ahead of time and so there's no delays Okay

And the thing to remember Pam is that now we have Bridget who seems to be more on top of things than our prior staff Staff liaisons, and so I think things are moving faster And and Bridget you're going to be responsible also for coordinating with the pixie people To set up that. So yeah, so you've got a lot going on Always

she does it's to me

And one more question, Bridget. I was hoping to post on social media and Facebook and Instagram about this event. Is there anything that I need to know before doing that?

No, not if it's on your own social media I just thought you know guys new to we're gonna have a community calendar coming up soon. We have it but it's not Up yet. It's not live yet. And these are the things we will be able to put in there

What send it to her and see? Outstanding outstanding Thank You Pam

I have a question that relates to what Bridget just said about the calendar. May I? I realize it's not on the agenda as such, but it follows directly so the question is this We are, Bridget for some reason under the Department of Recreation whenever you look at the website. The Arts Commission is a part of recreation which is both confusing and inaccurate And inaccurate and and misleading. And so When the community calendar comes out, is there a way to separate the arts from recreation? That is my sort of general question

I don't have an answer yet, but I'll make yeah, I'll get one and I'm sure there's not a problem. Okay Thank you

That's weird, okay. All right Let's give some quick Commissioner reports if you have anything I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm working on the Strategic planning you'll be hearing more about that and the scheduling of it and been working on the The Public Art Fund accounting So there's some slow wheels turning but wheels are turning on that as well and And so that's all I that's all I have to say do you have anything on public art Commissioner Steiner?

No, I don't. Mm-hmm. Thank you

anybody anything else Commissioner Brown Okay, all right Commissioner Wright on grants

I have a report I am very happy with the past grant cycle. I think we all should be happy is It resulted in 25 grant recipients and they will receive their payments this week Thanks to Bridget for her Hard work in the city to get this in front of the right people and a timely fashion So, thank you Bridget for pushing to get the checks out We're way ahead of the game. Everybody is gonna appreciate that Although the grant cycle was a hundred times better than the previous year I think there are many ways to improve it and I would like to spend the next couple of months Timeline June to work with the Commission and city staff to improve the application itself mainly to clarify shortcomings that Bridget myself in the ad hoc committee and some of you observed when we were diving into the grant cycle These changes will include basic things like mitigating application confusion by improving the general instructions themselves.

Some people literally didn't know how many copies of things and when you do actually read it very closely, you could actually understand why they didn't understand that. From general things like instructions to some more in-depth changes, I would like to improve the essay questions. I think we can change them so they actually gather the information we're looking for more specifically on their concepts and budgets and I also want online essays to clearly address the goals of the grants We have those goals outlined on our website, which is what I based the rubric on. But I found that The essay questions were too general and it would be a lot more productive for everybody if they were actually better outlined, so I'd like to do that.

Looking for the process on how to go forward with this. You know, we also want to get the application to be a 100% online submission only eliminating the hard copy applications altogether. And with that I would like to see and Bridget would like to see The application itself to be more robust and dynamic There are some very simple things in that form that are Not there just simply not there, you know Your name doesn't, you know.

Go from the first page to the last page. You know there's just some programming basically that has to change on that too. Make it easier for the applicant and easier for us to understand the material when it's actually downloaded into our drive so I want to work on that and. You know the? The application itself can include a lot more information that will clarify the entire process for people. Bridget gets numerous questions from people, when are we going to find out when the grants are? Even though we outline In our meetings leading up to it, people still don't seem to know. So I think we can put on our website, put on the actual physical application, the timeline of when we review them, actually put the date of when you're invited to present so that also eliminates confusion.

People didn't get their email. They didn't know about it. It's just simple. These are very simple things that I want to make To change to make the process more robust some of these I'm just curious You know what has to be agendized. What doesn't have to be agendized? What I can just work directly with city staff to improve, I think changing the essay questions.

I would think that we might want to discuss that here together, would be helpful and you know the reason I want to change the essay questions is In my scoring rubric, I'm asking for things that

aren't

necessarily directly addressed in the application.

And you want to hear about

them? It's implied like tell us about your audience. Well it doesn't specifically say tell us how you are serving an underserved community. Things like that so very basic things All of which I know everybody will be for, but Smitty maybe I can meet with you and we can figure out what needs to...

Yeah. I have some ideas that I wanted you to...

To be agendized and what doesn't so...

Did you have something

else

cuz Just so I can answer yeah, definitely work with Bridget and move things as you Because this is like a specific knowledge thing You know what? I mean and you've now been through it for two years And and you have ad hoc committees that you've you know use both ears, you know And I think that's where the real sort of expertise is right now So maybe you even need a committee to do this. Um This will come up in our strategic planning,

right?

But in our strategic plan we may not have those experts there So I encourage you to push ahead make it better Make it better than the damn doctor. How many times you have to write what medications your honor allergies? So you're already a lot better than that so III Encourage you to just keep keep bonsai once ago bonsai when you keep tweaking

Last year, the year before obviously was my first year. Having gone through it a second time exactly like I Many more things became apparent In that second

and the other thing is we were kind of aiming as a future agenda item in March Now when you say June, I just want to advise you if you think there's gonna be any budgetary impacts From the changes. You're gonna make it'll be too late to kind of plan for them in June So just be aware of that

Well, one thing I did have on my report here if I may is consider. I would like to also this is separate from changing the application. I would like us to have a discussion about whether or not we want to evaluate individual artists and arts organizations separately. As you've seen time and time again, the individuals cannot measure up to the organizations so they are having to meet the same criteria and be judged on the same scoring rubric without full deck of cars as it were. And I would say, do we evaluate individuals separately with separate budget than when you brought up budget? You know, we're going to allocate X amount of money to only individual artists or do we eliminate them all together?

We need

to make sure we're not having a

discussion on it. Yeah, I will say that in my talks with the county this is not something new in the world and there you know and there is a way to do individuals but most don't because it is riskier I advise you to use resources at the county or even at the state, some of our state representatives as to how grants are set up and you could pull that language off

the applications. If we're going to continue with this scoring rubric if we want to set a minimum scoring threshold On the onset. Yeah,

I think this is part of what you've already stressed great just full steam ahead And I know that staff will advise if it starts to turn into something like a budget impact or something like that

Okay,

great. We'll get advice from moving ahead If I may I mean I Get the full steam ahead

Thank you for giving Karina that authority, but I do have a question about what I think is an important policy question she raised that I would like us to address next meeting or in the following meeting. And that is the question of arts organizations versus individual artists. I'd like to see us really tease that question out. I would like community input and I would Make a decision about that. That should be a future agenda item. Yeah,

it is actually already on

our And I know we can discuss this next next month of how to do that But I was thinking maybe we have a category for individual artists. That is like a set amount You know like fifteen hundred dollars or some? like People who would apply would know up front what's available and that maybe there's only three grants given. So it's like you have all these organizations, but then you have an individual grant for individual artists that is limited and directed.

That's a good idea. It'll be part of the details Once you look at but I know this has been looked at and as someone who applies for grants I can kind of see why but there's some experts out there that we can tap And

I mean as Christine Commissioner sign are pointing out that that is much The individuals versus organizations and together that is that is that is completely changing the grants and obviously though that would be Open for discussion and maybe even a conversation with City Council One last thing

is I would like to get to the bottom of whether or not you can apply two years or three years consecutively, or if that

applies at all And I don't know how to get the answer to

that. Yeah, you know part of that will come from us getting our audits You know we don't have firm information on Does giving grants Repeat it, you know serve the best interests of the public and the arts to repeat and support our strong organizations or are we more of a incubator for starting new things I think That can be answered at a higher level than Just how many years you're allowed to apply?

That's just a number but it needs to be driven by something more important. Yeah

What like what so I think the question on the table is what I understand to be a policy that this commission earlier Adopted without any Obligation to do so and I agree with Karina because there is confusion in the community That we this Commission want to look at that question. I don't think it has to go to a higher funding authority

I mean That's the kind of thing I think we'll vote on actually when but it'll probably come with some of the other changes that you're making as well.

Right, I think that will be a vote but

is that going to be

next? I mean I agree we need to get moving.

Well I'm hoping to do this in March because I'd like... I know you said June but... No

no by...I want to have my application updated by June. Yeah

yeah I would shoot for a March meeting here. I kind of have it penciled in to have the recommendations from grants, from you as to changes that need voted on before the commission.

Okay and we can't have a recommendation before we have a discussion right? Unless you're going to bring the

recommendation for discussion. You know we couldn't have them the different agenda items right

Well, from what I've heard, I hear things that can be solved either by herself or ad hoc committee or talking with experts and then bringing that as part of the report when we have it. The

issue of whether or not you can apply Two years consecutive consecutively or if it's three years consecutively Or if there are no restrictions is a question that Has remained unclear to me. So I'm just trying to I just want to get clarification on that before the next grant cycle and gather information to the public and or and or if is in place and it's real if we want to change it.

Well, we're too deep already. I know in a discussion of something here. Thanks. It's not mine to give but I encourage you to move things ahead and work with staff and if it reaches a point where you're moving too fast for good government then we'll hear about it. Right. Okay, good thank you.

David did you have anything on the...

Okay, thank you

We're done where were they were in Commissioner reports

Well our city collection can I ask a question about that

What about it

I

don't know you need to then a meeting just ask Christine's pretty good person to ask questions. I

Don't share the city.

I know you don't but she I said you're a good person to ask What's your question Pam? Well our city collection is in our strategic plan, actually. And so I think when we get into our strategic planning here soon, we'll maybe be able to get in the meat of that and come up with it because we don't have any sort of particular items met or not met in terms of that, and we haven't given any attention this year. So there's sort of... But that's how I would try to do it is through our strategic planning. But I hear you and agree. That makes